Revealed: new Holden Commodore VF

New large car features high-tech upgrades and a more mature look.

The unashamed emphasis on performance is a different tack to that taken by the other two local car makers, Ford and Toyota, which have chosen environmentally friendly models as the banner wavers in their range. Last year, Ford launched the first four-cylinder Falcon in the car's history, while Toyota released an improved version of its hybrid Camry, which uses less fuel than a lot of city runabouts.

Holden's hero Commodore is likely to use more than double the fuel of a hybrid Camry. And the range will be one of only a handful worldwide that don't offer an engine smaller than a V6. So have the boffins at Holden headquarters lost their marbles? Not if you look at the sales figures.

First, it's pretty clear now that buyers aren't abandoning large cars because they are too thirsty; a large number of deserters have traded in for SUVs that use just as much fuel. Ford's four-cylinder Falcon has flopped and the Camry Hybrid failed to meet initial sales expectations.

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Last year, roughly one in three Commodores sold was a V8. Commodore sales may have shrunk from a peak of more than 90,000 vehicles in 1998 to little more than 30,000 last year, but the hardcore faithful are still there.

That doesn't mean that Holden is serving up the same fare as it has for the three-plus decades that Commodore has been sold in this country.

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Aware that its large car has been tagged as a ''bogandore'' by some critics and that it has slipped off the radar of private buyers, Holden has gone to great lengths to make the car more sophisticated and modern.

The two-tone imitation suede and perforated-leather-lined cabin pays homage to BMW, while the eight-inch centre touchscreen has all the features you'd expect in a modern car.

The Calais V is also packed with driver assistance technology that just a couple of years ago was reserved for the luxury market, while the bonnet and boot are made of lightweight aluminium.

The Commodore will even park itself.

Outside, the simple, clean lines of the VE have been replaced by a more modern, sculpted look with sharper creases and more curves. The VE is widely recognised as one of the best-looking cars on the road, so the design of the VF was always going to be a delicate balancing act, but the general consensus is that the design team got it right. In a Drive poll, its approval rating was 81 per cent.

Holden won't reveal engineering details until closer to the car's June on-sale date, but don't expect major changes to the engine, transmission or suspension. Despite that, Devereux calls this the ''no excuses'' Commodore, a car he says is world class and no longer compromised by its Down Under roots.

''What is different about today's car is the sophistication, the technology and refinement that makes this a no-excuses, no-asterisk/star/exclamation point - you can fill in the word - world-class vehicle,'' he says.

''What we have been able to do with this VF is tailor it to be a class above anything we've ever done. This is going to change what people think of the large car in this country.''

Why now?

The Commodore has been unveiled early because the sports model it is exporting to the US will break cover today as Chevrolet's official Nascar entrant for the famed Daytona 500.

The publicity could play havoc with the runout of the current model, but Devereux is willing to take the risk. ''It's not ideal timing but we couldn't pass up the chance to be at Daytona,'' he says.

The new VF Commodore will be exported to the US in low volumes later this year, when it will be sold as the Chevrolet SS performance car.

''We have proven with this car that you can export things from this country,'' Devereux says, referring to the previously announced plans to sell about 5000 in the US.

''Yeah, it's difficult, but if you make world-class stuff … you can sell it in San Francisco, Sydney, Boston to Brisbane and it is world class. You cannot do that if it's not world class.''

The inside story

The moment you slide into the driver's seat of the new VF Commodore you realise this is a major design overhaul.

The Calais V on display at the media reveal was not unrecognisable as a Commodore, but everything you touch and see is new. Grip the flat-bottomed steering wheel and it feels smaller and more manageable. Holden reduced the diameter by seven millimetres (for a total diameter of 370 millimetres) after feedback the last one was too big and thick.

Peer beyond the wheel and the instrument panel glows a high-tech blue (red for the SS-V). On the windscreen at eye level, you're greeted by a heads-up display that shows speed and the satellite-navigation system's turn directions.

To the left is the new eight-inch colour monitor with touchscreen controls.

The switches - including the boot release that used to be in the glovebox - have been relocated to the doors, and the cheap-feeling pull-up handbrake is now operated by a switch. Elsewhere, there is liberal use of perforated and stitched leather and Alcantara (imitation suede).

It's the sleekest, most mature-looking Commodore ever produced, but almost half the new VF Commodore is unchanged from the outside.

Put it down to some clever design aimed at giving the appeal of an all-new model without the $1 billion budget that helped create the VE Commodore of 2006.

The middle section of the car, from the front windscreen to the rear windscreen, is almost completely unchanged. The nose has more-sculpted headlights along with LED daytime running lights on all but the base model, while there's more chrome throughout.

Ten sensors on the front and rear bumpers of the new Holden VF Commodore give away what this car is all about.

They are there to provide the kind of crash-avoidance systems normally reserved for more expensive cars and they are part of a sales pitch that says Holden can compete with the rest of the world in cutting-edge technology.

The technological highlights for the new VF Commodore include forward-collision warning, blind-spot monitors and lane-departure warning - features that will be offered on some models.

There's also rear-traffic alert that warns of vehicles passing as a driver reverses out of parking spaces and driveways.

Elsewhere in the cabin the technological bent continues, with a jet-fighter style heads-up display and an eight-inch touchscreen that integrates mobile phone app readouts such as Pandora into the digital display.

Every Commodore will also be able to park itself in both parallel and nose-to-kerb spots and will be fitted with a reversing camera as standard. Keyless entry and a stop-start button mean you can start the car with the key in your pocket.